


A Promise

by sanctum_c



Series: Aerti Week 2019 [4]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Gold Saucer (Compilation of FFVII), Promises, Waiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:19:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27140314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: Aeris promised Tifa she would return before she entered the Sleeping Forest. Now it's two weeks later.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Series: Aerti Week 2019 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981054
Kudos: 10





	A Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'distance and reunion'

“I’ll come back. When this is all over.” Almost the last words Aeris said to Tifa before stepping into the Sleeping Forest and vanishing. Before Meteor loomed in the sky. Before the surge of white energy some said was Holy reached up to obliterate it from the sky.

But there were other words; a specific promise and one which Tifa had wanted to keep private. “I will meet you where we first kissed.”

Not a mystery. The course of the adventure, the pursuit and harrying of Sephiroth as he strove to complete his plan to decimate the planet, had taken them through multiple settlements and across whole continents. But Aeris’s words referred to the Gold Saucer – twice their destination thanks to Sephiroth’s trail. And it was on the second visit to the theme park they were able to have a date of sorts.

The connection between them had built since they started. The desire for physical proximity, the excuses to touch, the private jokes they shared. But through it all, Tifa could not shake worries and doubts Aeris felt as strongly about her as she did about Aeris. So she said nothing, frustrated but glad to be able to spend the time in Aeris’s company.

Until she dropped by her room in the Gold Saucer and ASKED her out on a date. A date. Tifa said yes, only realising after perhaps Aeris meant in a more platonic sense. The kiss eradicated her worries – but later. Together they went to find some food. Nothing too luxurious – this was a theme park and their funds limited from constant travel and lodgings. But still; to spend these moments on the opposite side of the table with Aeris while they ate terrible fast food and drank their watered-down drinks.

After food they ventured to the chocobo-tracks, placing tiny bets between them for no money, championing and cheering for their selected chocobo. They left as square became more crowded, heading for the arcade. Took turns on skill-cranes and basketballs shots. Played against each other in beat-em-ups. The theatre turned them away; already a performance in progress – and the queue for the gondolas was absurd.

Aeris apologised for the slightly haphazard date, but Tifa shushed her, insisting it was fine. They wound up in Battle Square. A few brave fighters made it a little way into the event, before unavoidably overcome with a debilitating spell or frog transformation. Not something either was keen on tonight. They grew tired fast – only hours before, Cloud had run this same gauntlet.

For want of a better idea, they wound up idling in Dio’s trophy room. Absurdly self-aggrandising of his possibly dubious awards, and half strange sculptures and weird curios from around the world. Barely glimpsed on previous visits – and when they approached him for the Keystone; the case of which now lay empty.

Their first kiss; a strange choice of location, but far less trafficked and less crowded than most of the theme park. A brief moment of privacy and a thrilling start to so much more. If only Cait Sith’s treachery not been behind their stay. If only his giving away of the Keystone forced events to move as they did – culminating in Aeris walking into the Sleeping Forest – a place no one had made it through.

Two months since then. Aeris did not have her PHS (left behind when she walked into the forest) and remained uncontactable. For a time there were other factors to handle. With the removal of Meteor, Avalanche returned to pressure and the fight against Shinra. Public consciousness was slow to shift, but increasingly difficult questions about Mako power became harder and harder for Shinra to brush off.

The ecological impact became of paramount concern. New reactors stalled and efforts made to shift to other forms of energy. The world was waking up it seemed. And a full two months later, Tifa took the time out to head to the Gold Saucer. Aeris was not in Dio’s trophy room. The odds against finding her there were high; no arrangement of times – merely a promise of when it was all over.

She could wait.

Days passed. And nothing. Tifa wandered the Gold Saucer, taking looping routes to drop by the trophy room, looking always for a flash of pink denoting Aeris. No sign of her. More days and still nothing. A week and she would soon be out of money and time; Avalanche had other objectives, other pressures to bring to bear against Shinra. She could not wait forever.

Tifa hung on until the last moments of the day, when Gold Saucer attendants ushered everyone towards the entrance and the hotel. And finally, Tifa gave up. And walked straight into Aeris.

All Aeris could get out as Tifa threw her arms around her and kept tight hold of her was “Sorry I’m late.”


End file.
